FO 371/180322: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [13] (28 Oct-5 Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180322 (28 Oct-5 Nov 1965): Djakarta telegrams quoting Antara on the post-coup purge, Sukarno versus the generals, Medan and Central Java. Gerwani items: tel. 2418 (2 Nov, p. 52) reports a Kowani/women's congress move to expel Gerwani members; tel. 2421 (p. 57) quotes Suharto naming 'Pemud
FO 371/180323: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [14] (Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180323 (c. 4-16 Nov 1965): Djakarta telegrams, Antara extracts and Foreign Office correspondence on the PKI's destruction, Subandrio, Nasution and Sukarno. Gerwani items: tel. 2480 (p. 39) reports a 8 Nov Jakarta rally of women's organisations demanding dissolution of the PKI and Gerwani;
Anger mounts against the PKI over the killings (Berita Harian, 1965)
Berita Harian, 7 October 1965, p. 1: Sukarno's first cabinet meeting after 30 September; Nahdlatul Ulama demands a PKI ban and claims rebels armed Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani and SOBSI, and that Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani members trained at 'Sarang Buaya' (Lubang Buaya). Also press and rally restrictions in Sumatra and an ar
Abrupt change in Indonesia's political situation: Suharto takes control, mass arrests, PKI offices burned
Xinhua survey in Renmin Ribao (20 Oct 1965, p. 1) of Indonesia's first three weeks after 30 September, from Chinese-side sources: Suharto takes control, mass arrests (3,000 by 17 October), PKI headquarters burned, Harian Rakjat closed, universities shut, anti-Chinese incidents. Gerwani appears in the NU demand to disso
Peking Review no. 43, 22 October 1965: drastic changes in Indonesian political situation; Gerwani office burnt
Peking Review no. 43 (22 Oct 1965), Chinese state weekly, with a Xinhua round-up on 'drastic changes' in Indonesia after 30 September. It reports army-controlled Djakarta groups demanding dissolution of the PKI, Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani (c. 5 Oct), Gerwani's office burnt down on 9 Oct, and the later banning order; Ren
The Anti-Communist Campaign in Indonesia: A Chronology (USIA R-158-65), Nov 1965
USIA Research and Reference Service report R-158-65 (November 1965), a chronology of the anti-Communist campaign in Indonesia, 1-20 October 1965, built on Indonesian and foreign radio and press. Gerwani entries: Suharto's 4 Oct TV statement linking the generals' murders to Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwani training grounds; NU
The masses did not rise (The Hindustan Times, 8 December 1965)
The Hindustan Times, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth (Singapore), 'PKI Debacle I: The Masses Did Not Rise': analysis of why the PKI collapsed after the 1 Oct coup: overrated membership, reliance on Sukarno and on army and air force penetration, no general strike, SOBSI dissolving. It reports Untung's alleged claim that m
Army plans to kill P.K.I. for ever (The Scotsman, 8 December 1965)
The Scotsman, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth, 'Army plans to kill PKI for ever': Suharto and Nasution press to destroy the PKI while Sukarno refuses to ban it; the article analyses the PKI's miscalculations. It repeats the slander that six generals were mutilated by 'doe-eyed girls' of the PKI's 'Gerwani' women's moveme
Dossier of the Indonesian Drama (Lucien Rey, New Left Review, 1966)
Article by Lucien Rey (New Left Review no. 36, March 1966) reconstructing the 1 October 1965 events as a plot by dissident Central Java officers, plus a translated Asahi Shimbun interview with PKI deputy chair Njoto. Says People's Youth and Gerwani auxiliaries trained at Halim took part in the generals' executions in r
RAND memorandum RM-5753-PR (Feb 1969), Guy J. Pauker, 'The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Indonesia'. Argues, from trial records, that Aidit planned the 30 September action against the generals and traces PKI strategy, the Chinese turn, the agrarian 'unilateral actions' and the killings (up to 300,000), and th
Social Conditions Leading to Military Dominance: the case of Indonesia (Kahane, 1974)
Journal article by Reuven Kahane (Contributions to Asian Studies, vol. 5, 1974) giving a structural-sociological explanation of the 1965 coup and army dominance in Indonesia: religious-class polarisation, failing Sukarno-era control mechanisms, and the army's rise. Gerwani appears only in a footnote listing PKI-affilia
Murders (Suharto and the mass killings of 1965-66)
De Waarheid piece (2 Sep 1989, p.16) criticising Suharto's silence on the 1965-66 massacres, quoting Stanley Karnow and C.L. Sulzberger on the killings and estimates of 300,000 to one million dead. It notes mass arrests without trial of hundreds of thousands, including members of SOBSI, Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat, and t
The Forgotten Years: Mass Slaughter in Jombang-Kediri 1965-1966 (Sulistyo, 1997)
Hermawan Sulistyo's 1997 Arizona State history PhD, 'The Forgotten Years', studies the 1965-66 killings in Jombang-Kediri, East Java, from interviews and documents, finding no single national pattern and stressing local conflict and military-backed operations. Gerwani appears in passing: its claimed 1.75 million member
The Cold War in the City of Heroes: US-Indonesian Relations and Anti-Communist Operations in Surabaya (Setiyawan, 2014)
PhD dissertation in History (UCLA, 2014) by Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan on U.S. anti-communist operations and the 1965-66 purge in Surabaya. Gerwani appears in context: as the PKI's women's affiliate (ch. 1), through the Surabaya women's coalition GOWS in the 27 September 1965 Grahadi demonstration (ch. 4), and in the Army